When people exercise they “feel better” and have improved health on a multitude of levels. Studies show exercise reduces heart attacks, lowers cholesterol, improves circulation, strengthens bones, strengthens the immune system, and provides a host of other benefits for people that are too numerous to list.
The applicant, being a veterinarian working with dairy cows, believes that exercise in dairy cattle would have the same salutary effects for the same reasons as those shown in humans. Just like in humans, improved health in cattle will reduce health care costs by improving the health of every bodily system, and also increase their useful output. Both of these are economic benefits that translate to increased profits for dairy farmers. These are benefits that farmers can easily understand and would, therefore, readily adopt. The benefits of health and exercise to cattle are similar to the benefits for humans, and thus the adoption of exercise could make an immediate and positive impact in agricultural output throughout the developed world.
When working as a large animal veterinarian in the Wisconsin State Department of Agriculture, the applicant witnessed firsthand the benefits of exercise in dairy cattle and heard similar stories from other veterinarians from across the United States. The applicant believes the benefits of exercise are so great that positive results will be found almost immediately and that this approach is simple enough to create a great deal of interest throughout the dairy industry. Since dairy cows often don't have walking lanes available for exercise by walking, what is needed is a device which can be used for exercise by dairy cows which can be used in a relatively confined space, such as a treadmill with certain specialized features.
Such a device would have immediate impacts on such bovine problems as those listed below:                1. Lame cow syndrome.        2. Calving problems.        3. Digestive upsets.        4. Misplaced abomasum.        5. Longer life span in milking parlor.        6. Infertility.        
Lame cow syndrome is from excess hoof growth, and could be prevented by adequate hoof abrasion or walking. Other benefits would also result, such as less stress for cows, which should result in more milk produced. Also, healthier cows are likely to produce healthier milk.
On western ranches, where more land can be available for cows, cattle feed is often put at least ½ mile from the cattle their drinking water, because it is believed to result is fewer calving problems. This is due to the positive health effects of walking, which may be caused in part by the fact that walking movement massages the entire bovine digestive tract. This assertion is confirmed by comparing health of dairy cattle to beef cattle. The latter walk as they graze and it has been shown they have fewer health problems than dairy cattle.
It is likely that a healthier cow will live longer and be more productive, and a healthier cow is likely to have fewer fertility problems.